


Till Death Do Us Part

by BaraLinni



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Angst, Blood, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Execution, Lionheartshipping, M/M, Past Lives, Suicide, extension of canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2018-12-21 02:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11934732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaraLinni/pseuds/BaraLinni
Summary: Leonis was controlled by Don Thousand, and that's why he sentenced Alit to death. But what happened after he was released from the mind control?Hint: It wasn't pretty





	Till Death Do Us Part

“You’ve got it all wrong, I keep telling you!” With his hands bound behind his back, the best Alit could do was try to shoulder tackle his captors, desperately fighting to break free of their unrelenting hold. He saw Leonis look up from inspecting his nails, confusion and then utter outrage on his face at seeing Alit being dragged across the throne room. Relief washed over him. Leonis was the Emperor, he would set this right.

“Leon, I-”. He was interrupted by the sound of the heavy iron ball hitting the floor, followed by the too short chain rattling and unceremoniously yanking him down onto his knees. Alit winced at the sharp pain from his knees hitting the stone floor through the too thin carpet, and at the strain on the back of his neck. Looking up, he saw that Leonis was gripping the armrests of his throne so tightly that Alit feared he might actually break them off. His jaw was clenched and the fury in his voice would send shivers down anybody’s spine.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Before Alit had the chance to speak, the same advisor from before stepped forward, brandishing that same scroll with the red signature on the bottom.

“My Emperor! The gladiator known as Alit stands before you, accused of murder of the most-”

“Silence!” Leonis’s voice boomed through the chamber as he stood up from his seat, and the advisor quickly shut his mouth and bowed his head. Even from his position on the floor, Alit could see that Leonis’s fists were shaking. “How _dare_ you spout such nonsense in my presence? There is no way that Alit has committed such a horrible sin! He and I are closer than any two brothers!”

Alit felt his eyes tearing up with gratitude and love. “Emperor…”

Leonis met Alit’s gaze and nodded confidently. “Everyone knows as well as I that Alit would never carry out a deed that vile! I trust him entirely, with my life and with the lives of my people! Once I have passed, he is the one who shall be Emperor, to bravely rule this country!” He made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “Now, free Alit at onc-”

“Come now, don’t do anything foolish”.

Both Alit and Leonis jumped at the gravelly, echoing voice, and Leonis spun around to face the cloaked figure that had suddenly appeared from behind the throne, seemingly out of thin air. He wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Who’s this wretch?

“My name is…” the voice started, and then Alit’s head was filled by a booming sensation that pressed painfully onto his eardrums, drowning out all sounds. When the feeling subsided, he saw Leonis visibly relax and step away from the figure, clearing the way to allow Alit to finally see the figure’s face. His eyes widened in recognition. “It’s that man!” It was the mysterious hooded man he had seen in the shadows of that alleyway. When was it again? He couldn’t recall. He had been so certain that he had imagined it, and yet there stood the man, cloak billowing around him as though it were made of fog.

Leonis turned around, and Alit hardly recognised him. It was as if his eyes had been emptied of all warmth, staring down at Alit with something akin to contempt. “Gladiator known as Alit, you are charged with murder”. His words and his cold, emotionless voice felt like a punch to the face.

Shocked to his core at the sudden turn of attitude, Alit tried desperately to reason with him. “But Emperor, you know that I’m innocent! You just said so!” Leonis turned his cold gaze toward the advisor, completely disregarding Alit’s protests. The advisor nodded stiffly and Leonis look back at Alit, glaring down at him over the bridge of his nose.

“The suspect has been found guilty”.

“Guilty as charged”, echoed the advisor and the guards.

Alit could only splutter. “Guilty? But- Emperor! Please, you know I’m innocent! You can’t sentence an innocent! Emperor? _Leonis!_ ” His words fell only on deaf ears, the absolutely freezing stare Leonis had him fixed with jabbing at his heart like daggers. No matter what or how loudly he shouted it elicited no response from anyone in the room. “Leonis! Please, listen to me! Leon, my love, please!”

“I hereby sentence the suspect to death”. At those horrifyingly emotionless words, Alit could hear heavy steps behind him. He quickly turned his head to look, and saw a single man step away from the crowd of guards, carrying his huge axe in his hands. An imperial executioner.

Alit’s mouth ran dry and he instinctively started to fight against his bonds. “ _Leon!_ ” he shouted, voice filled with fear, looking up at Leonis, pleading and desperate. “This isn’t you, Leon, please tell me this isn’t real!”

Leonis sneered at him and Alit felt his blood run cold. _This is a dream. A nightmare. It must be. It_ must _be!_ He could feel the tears he had been fighting back finally break free, flooding down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor. Then, there was suddenly a voice in his head – that same gravelly echo.

_“Why let sorrow consume you when hatred is so much easier to harbour? Why cry from sadness when you could scream in anger?”_

Was the voice right? Should he be feeling angry? His mind was a jumble of feelings and emotions – confusion, hurt, betrayal, and endless sorrow. He looked up at Leonis pointing an accusing finger at him, seconds away from uttering that final order, and realised that even after all of this, he really could not bring himself to hate him. That realisation cut like ice through what remained of his heart. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he caught Leonis’s merciless eyes. “Leon”. His voice cracked. He tried to shout, but the best he could do was whisper. “Leon, I lo-”.

It felt like a massive blow landed beneath his ribs, knocking the wind out of him completely. Struggling for air, he could feel his thoughts slipping away, out of his reach. They were quickly replaced by a black fog so thick that it made him choke, and what felt like a knife so cold that it burned forced its way into his chest. He screamed in pain, writhing on the ground, and suddenly he felt nothing. For one horrible moment he felt empty, completely devoid of all emotion, vaguely aware of a voice that seemed to be booming out from every corner of the room, rattling his very bones but not registering as words. Then, the black fog cleared and his senses returned with the force of a sledgehammer. He was aware of how hard and cold the stone floor felt beneath the carpet, how the handcuffs chafed at his wrists behind his back, how the air was filled with a thirst for blood. He looked up at the Emperor to whom he had willingly devoted his whole being. The Emperor whom he had trusted with his life and his heart, and he was filled with a searing red-hot rage that burned through his veins, lighting his whole body on fire from the inside.

Alit hated the way the Emperor stood in front of his ridiculous throne on an elevated platform, as if to say that he and only he was above all other life in this world. He hated the way the light made his golden hair shine as bright as the sun, he hated the way he carried himself as though he was entitled to every ray of sunshine to ever reach the Earth. He hated the way his red, red cape moved dramatically as he moved to point at Alit, shaping his hand into a fist with his thumb pointing to the side. He hated his cold, lifeless eyes, the victorious sneer on his lips as he let the thumb point toward the floor, the way his voice filled the whole chamber as he gave the command.

“To death with him!”

Through the hatred pulsating through his body, Alit could hear the muscles of the executioner straining as he lifted the heavy axe. He raised his face defiantly to glare right into the Emperor’s eyes, the shackle around his neck sliding down to settle against his necklace with a click that echoed through the room. The necklace that Leonis had given him.

It was as if something inside of him cracked and Alit felt a surge of emotions fighting desperately to be let out, before the fog returned and all he could hear over the hatred coursing through him was the axe whistling through the air.

~~

As the axe started to swing downward, Leonis felt something jolt violently deep inside of him, creating a crack which spread throughout his mind faster than wildfire, until it felt like a barrier collapsed and his emotions came rushing out with the force of a lightning strike. Realisation. Disbelief. A violent, all-consuming fear. And utter despair. He screamed – ordering the executioner to stop in his actions, pleading to the axe to stop its trajectory, praying to time itself to stop, stop, please stop. Too late, of course, much too late, and he watched in absolute horror as the axe fulfilled its duty.

He did not realise that he had stopped screaming until the sound of his knees hitting the floor echoed through the silence. Mortified, he stared blankly at the scene in front of him, unable to move, unable to make a sound. Not even feeling the tears rushing down his face, Leonis unsteadily got to his feet and swayed along the carpet, every step seeming like a mile. “A-”, he tried, but his voice would not carry. “Ali-”. His voice was so raspy that talking felt like swallowing broken glass.

After what felt like forever, he fell unceremoniously onto his knees beside Alit, seeing up close what had happened to- no, what _he had done_ to his one true love. Had he not felt so drained, he would have felt sick at the sight. _What have I done? What have I done?_ With one hand on the floor to keep himself upright, he reached out and touched one of Alit’s warm arms. “Alit, my love”, he rasped, his voice breaking on almost every syllable, “please, forgive me”. Fumbling shakily along Alit's back, Leonis finally found one of Alit's still bound hands, grabbing hold of it tightly as he felt his tears regain momentum and his voice grow thicker. “Please _, forgive me!”_ He kept repeating those words, a hoarse, whispered plea in the otherwise silent room. He lifted his other hand from the floor and froze when he saw that it was covered in deep red blood. _I did this._ He felt his heart beat faster and suddenly, the air seemed too thick to breathe in. _This is my fault._ Gasping for breath, he looked past his hand onto the blood soaking into the carpet, spilling onto the floor, spreading out until Leonis was drowning in an ocean of deep, deep red.

And he screamed.

~~

At some point, he had been dragged out of the throne room, too drained to protest or put up much of a fight. ‘Get some sleep’, his advisors had said. If Leonis had any joy left in him he would have laughed. _What’s the point?_ As it was, he just sat by his desk, staring silently at the wall as time passed. How could he possibly live with the knowledge of what he had done? How could he ever smile again without Alit by his side? He side-eyed the golden letter opener lying on the desk. His advisors had removed every sharp object from his room before they finally left, but they had obviously overlooked the almost dagger-like letter opener. _Whatever,_ he thought and returned to staring at the wall. Alit would not wish for him to take his own life in such a dishonoring way.

That thought sparked an idea, and he summoned strength that he was sure had already left him to dip a quill in the ink and scratch some well chosen words onto two pieces of parchment. Somehow, he managed to stumble over to the door and hand the notes to the guards posted outside, along with quick instructions on to whom they were to be delivered and with what level of urgency. With the first part of his plan in motion, Leonis wobbled through the hallway, ordering a horse to be readied immediately. There was a gladiator game still running that day, and he would not miss it for the life of him.

~~

The crowd cheered from the tightly packed galleries as their Emperor stepped out into the ring, striding all the way to the middle to firmly grasp the hand of his opponent – some newbie executioner or other. With a raised hand, the Emperor silenced the crowd, taking a deep breath before speaking, his voice uncharacteristically hoarse.

“Today, I committed a terrible crime. I let myself be swayed by a stranger to order the execution of an innocent man. A man whom I had vowed to myself to never harm. A man whom I love”. The crowd was silent, stunned by what their Emperor was saying. “My one wish is that it shall always be remembered that Alit the Gladiator, next in line to the throne, was innocent, and wrongfully executed. As such, I stand before you all, charged with murder”. He knelt in the sand, facing the balcony where he as emperor would sit to govern over the arena. He swallowed, reaching out a fist into the air, his thumb pointing to the side, as the executioner positioned himself at an angle behind him, lifting the axe above his head. Taking one last, deep breath, he let his thumb point toward the ground. “And I sentence myself to death”.


End file.
